Condition of Kashmiri inmates ‘horrible’: Yasin Malik

Srinagar, Oct 31: Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation front (JKLF), Muhammad Yasin Malik has said that the condition of Kashmiri inmates languishing in jails is alarming and “Indian authorities are hell-bent upon making their lives more miserable.”

People of Kashmir are seriously concerned about the health condition of senior leaders Shabir Ahmad Dar, JKLF organizer Siraj-ud-Din Mir who are both seriously ill and have now been shifted to hospital by Kot-balwal Jail authorities and senior resistance leaders Syeda Asiya Andrabi and Syed Shabir Ahmad shah who are languishing in Tihar Jail, Malik said in a statement issued.

Terming the condition of inmates languishing in various jails of JK and India as ‘miserable’, Malik said that “Indian rulers and their authorities have actually declared a war against people of Kashmir.”

He said that “in all aspect of life, Kashmiris are facing indiscrimination, apathy and oppression at the hands of Indian state which is treating Jammu Kashmir as its colony.”

Malik said that “being a signatory to the Geneva Convention on prisoner rights, it was obligatory on India to recognize rights of Kashmiri prisoners but contrary to this, Indian state is suppressing Kashmiri inmates and subjecting them to worst torture, cruelty and apathy and putting the lives of these inmates in jeopardy.”

Terming the health condition of senior resistance leaders Shabir Ahmad Dar (chairman Muslim Conference-S) and Siraj Ud din (deputy chief organizer JKLF) as ‘worrying’, Malik said that “two years back Shabir Ahmad Dar suffered a severe heart attack in police custody and has to live on life saving medicines. Recently, Dar fainted at Kot-balwal jail and has now been hospitalized in Jammu by Jail authorities.”
Likewise, JKLF leader Siarj-ud-din Mir who is elderly and suffering from different ailments and recently lost consciousness and fell down at the above said jail and even got injuries on his face and forehead, he said.

“He too has been shifted to some hospital in Jammu for treatment. In the same manner incarcerated Syeda Asiya Andrabi and senior resistance leader Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, languishing in Tihar Jail Delhi, along with many other Kashmiris are also suffering from cruel colonial approach of the Indian stat,” Malik added.

“Kashmiri inmates are prisoners of conscience and needed to be protected by international humanitarian laws but ironically international community is sitting silent on this which can only be termed as horrible,” he said.

Appealing ICRC and other human rights organizations to take note of this apathy and oppression unleashed on Kashmiri prisoners, Malik hoped that “these organizations will intervene and protect the lives of Kashmiri prisoners from Indian wrath.”